About The Scarlett Kite
Hi! I'm Scarlett Kiteway, I'm 20 years old, a journalism student in Perplex City and this is my blog all about the excitement over the search for the Cube. I'll be keeping track of what the media over there is saying about it, and maybe a little bit about my life as well!
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Friday, December 2, 2005
Now I'm on my own
Category: story, 02:18 PM
It was weird, this week, travelling on the train by myself. I kept remembering how last time I made this trip I was with my friends, how Margot and I used to play Pyramid late in the evenings, with the countryside flashing by outside the windows, just dark shadows of trees and mountains. I miss my friends. They're back in the city now, back in school. Sanj sent me a long mail about what's going on at Marmalejo; the Wheel team's won a game against Besley South, the Column is back in production, the school is gearing up for all the plays and celebrations at Restitution. It's all going on without me. I'm trying not to think about it too much.
I've been busy anyway, reviewing a lot of material Major Castille's given me about the history of the city. There's a lot to read about the war, a lot we didn't learn in school because they think it's better that schoolchildren not be exposed to horrible stories from our past. I'm grateful, in a way. I think maybe I was better off not knowing that my ancestors probably murdered millions of innocent people. It makes me feel even more jealous of the guys back home, of Margot and Brede and Sanj, who don't know about this stuff, who might never know about it. I wish I didn't know about it.
Major Castille has given me a couple of books: Roger Portson's "Last Days of Anjsbourg" and Imelda Monting's "Remembering the fallen". They piece together as much as they can of the story of the war; it's not much. So many records were lost, and that period was so confused, with agreements and counter-agreements, hopeful years when it seemed like the war was over, never to return, tense years of threats and posturing, and desperate years when it seemed that everyone in the world could be obliterated. It's horrible; I can't even imagine what it would be like to live through something like that. Portson's book is particularly sad - he combed through what records were available andto-access of people who had actually been to Anjsbourg, before the war. He has pages and pages of people describing the cobbled streets, the curved buildings with sloping pointed roofs. Little details are the ones that stick with you, like a merchant talking about how Anjsbourg produced the finest leather goods she'd ever seen, and how she'd bought one for her little son, a leather horse. Knowing that makes them seem, I don't know... real.
Anyway, since I left the train I haven't had much time for brooding. I've been hiking long distances every day, keeping out of the way of the major trails and making good time, keeping to the plan. It's beautiful here, and quite often I just get lost in enjoying the walk, the scenery. It's not as easy to do a trip like this alone as in a big group, but it means I always have things to do. In the past day, I've entered the area where Major Castille thought the "confusion field" would be operating, but I don't feel any different. I can see that the device he fitted to my key is working, keeping me sharp.
And, as we'd calculated, this afternoon just before sunset, I came in sight of Viendenbourg. There really is a Viendenbourg, and I've seen it, from the top of a high ridge where I've camped. It's like seeing in real life a place I've only ever seen in a dream before; a low-slung grey building, much larger than I'd thought, extending back a long way. People are always going in and out through thegates and, yes, there's a hum of machinery. But now that I'm here I can tell what that hum really is: it's the sound of drilling.
I'm planning to wait here for a couple of days, to observe the comings and goings, to see when would be the best time to go down. But I don't think it'll be too tricky; I expect they think the confusion field is impregnable, because the gates seem to be leftall the time. So this is it. I'm going into Viendenbourg.